


Back in the Fold

by Rulerofyouall



Series: Birds of a Feather [3]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Red Hood/Arsenal (Comics)
Genre: Alfred Pennyworth is the Best, Angst, Barbara Gordon is Oracle, Bruce Wayne is Batman, Bruce Wayne is a Good Parent, Canonical Character Death, Cassandra Cain is Black Bat, Damian Wayne is Robin, Dick Grayson is Nightwing, Duke Thomas is Signal, Dysfunctional Family, Family Bonding, Family Drama, Family Issues, Flashbacks, Fluff and Angst, Good Grandparent Alfred Pennyworth, Grooming, Jason Todd Deserves Better, Jason Todd Feels, Jason Todd Has Issues, Jason Todd Needs A Hug, Jason Todd is Red Hood, Jason Todd-centric, Lazarus Pit (DCU), M/M, Panic Attacks, Past Abuse, Past Character Death, Past Child Abuse, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protective Alfred Pennyworth, Protective Bruce Wayne, Protective Roy Harper, Sibling Bonding, Stephanie Brown is Spoiler, Team Bonding, Temporary Character Death, Tim Drake is Red Robin, Wing Grooming, Wingfic, Wings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-17 03:34:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29710998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rulerofyouall/pseuds/Rulerofyouall
Summary: It takes several severe injuries to bring Jason back to the Batcave, but he is much different than his family remembers.
Relationships: Alfred Pennyworth & Jason Todd, Batfamily Members & Jason Todd, Cassandra Cain & Tim Drake & Dick Grayson & Duke Thomas & Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne & Damian Wayne, Dick Grayson & Jason Todd, Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne, Jason Todd & Damian Wayne, Koriand'r & Jason Todd, Roy Harper & Jason Todd, Roy Harper & Koriand'r & Jason Todd, Roy Harper/Jason Todd, Stephanie Brown & Cassandra Cain & Tim Drake & Dick Grayson & Jason Todd & Damian Wayne, Talia al Ghul & Jason Todd, Tim Drake & Dick Grayson & Alfred Pennyworth & Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne & Damian Wayne, Tim Drake & Dick Grayson & Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne & Damian Wayne, Tim Drake & Dick Grayson & Jason Todd & Damian Wayne, Tim Drake & Jason Todd
Series: Birds of a Feather [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2171418
Comments: 8
Kudos: 166





	Back in the Fold

**Author's Note:**

> I own nothing!

_"Don't bind your wings, Jason."_

_"It'll constrict your breathing, Jason."_

_"You're going to bruise a rib, Jason."_

Jason was well and truly fucked at the moment. There was no other way to describe it, but hindsight was 20/20, yeah? Perhaps he shouldn't have gotten the duct tape out tonight. It might have made all the difference, but now, he'll never know.

He only knew a few things for certain. One, his wings were a disgusting hue of Lazarus green. Two, they were better off being kept away from the world. Three, binding them hurts like _fuck._ And five, he was truly in deep shit now. If he was smarter, he probably would have factored in his ability to breathe before deciding to bind his wings on a dangerous mission, but _no._ He was a fucking idiot.

Being a vigilante required high stamina as it is, and doing so with crushed lungs was nigh impossible. He continued doing so anyway, time after time, mission after mission, for the sole purpose of _not letting anyone see the ghastly green._ He didn't care if the only person who saw it was some random henchman or Batman himself (though he would hate if more if Bruce saw). If no one saw, no one would no how irreparably fucked he was from his time in the Lazarus Pit. The waters had soaked into him, corrupting his heart and staining his very soul, and his wings were one of the visual cues people would get that would only serve to remind all of them how hideously fucked he was.

Truly, there was no one to blame but himself for this sticky situation. He was taking heavy fire, the only thing between him and the bite of the bullets being the green, metal dumpster. Sure, Jason could probably find his way out of this somehow, but the persistent ache dug straight through his ribcage and into his lungs. He was stupid. This was stupid. Bruce had warned him that this would happen; hell, shit like this _had_ already happened before. Hell, even Talia and _every single person who had ever trained him_ warned against it as well. But did he learn his lesson? Nope!

He let out a short gasp once again as he tried to force air into his lungs. Even with normal binding methods, people weren't supposed to go exercising let alone running around Crime Alley as Red Hood, and by hell was he feeling the strain he had put on his lungs now.

At this point, he didn't even know how many goons were shooting at him. Would they dare to come closer, thinking that this would be an easy win? No, Jason wouldn't let that happen, no matter how fucked up his lungs were at the time. If Bruce knew what he was doing, he would no doubt be getting some sort of lecture later....at least that was what the Bruce of his Robin days would have done. He wasn't quite sure what current Bruce would do to be completely honest. He could decide that Jason was too far gone and not worth it, and he wouldn't exactly be able to disagree with Bruce, now, could he?

Roy and Kori would miss him if he was truly about to eat crap, he supposed, but there was such a large wedge between Jason and the Bats nowadays that he wasn't sure if they would mind if he was gone or not. Red Hood had certainly caused his fair share of trouble in the past. Bruce must think of him as a thorn constantly poking at his side. After all, he does check to see if Jason had been breaking his precious rules often enough. Whatever. He didn't care about them.

He rattled out another breath, groaning softly as he fumbled for the gun he had dropped when the wave of pain came over him. Blinding pain shot through him not long after that, and his heart rate quickened. Had they actually just done that?

"You shot me in the fucking ass, you goddamn cunt!" Damn it, his ass was one of Roy's favorite features.

Adrenaline now rushing through him, he gripped the gun tightly, whirled around, and fired numerous shots off at his attackers. He wasn't sure how many times he pulled the trigger, but he didn't give two flying fucks at the moment. He had a target. He knew where to shoot. That was all the information he needed to know.

He smirked in satisfaction as he heard several of the henchmen cursing behind him. Several of his bullets had landed in one of the men's, probably the leader's, wings as he had been stretching them out in a display of dominance, trying to make himself look larger than he actually was. Serves the bitch right to learn who was boss: _Jason._

Unfortunately, he wasn't so pleased with himself that he forgot about the bullet wound in his ass. He'd do anything to be able to ignore that for long enough to get back to Roy and Kori, but no, luck was not on his side today. Or ever, really. Speaking of Roy and Kori, he wondered if they had accessed his tracker yet. It was the early hours of the morning now, and he had swore to both of them that he would return before now. He frowned. He didn't like breaking promises very much.

"Wha's wrong, boss?" A confused voice asked behind him.

"The fuck you think is wrong? The bitch shot me!" The other man, the one who was showing off his wingspan, cursed at his crew. "Just get him already, yeah? He's one fucking man! He can't take on all of us!"

There was a moment of silence, and then, the gunfire started again. Jason groaned, flopping back down on the opposite side of the dumpster. He wondered where all the bullets were ending up. _Probably in someone's trash._ He didn't care though; anything that kept those bullets out of his body was a good thing. There were footsteps coming closer to him. They were very, very slow and very, very quiet, and Jason didn't think he would be able to hear them if he hadn't been trained as well as he had. They were stalking him, trying to get closer without him noticing, so they could go for the kill. He wouldn't let them.

He ripped off his helmet, ignoring all the warning lights on the insides as the countdown started. And Bruce had thought that it was stupid of him to hide explosives in there. _That'd show him._ This might be the only thing that'd save his fucking ass today, well, what's left of it anyway. Without a second thought, he threw the helmet as hard as he could at the crowd of henchmen and ducted back behind the dumpster, covering his head with both his arms and bracing for the inevitable _kaboom._

"That's a fucking bomb!" One of the goons gasped out after a few seconds of listening to the constant _tick, tick, tick, tick_ of his lovely explosives.

"Get rid of it!" A different man crowed, his wings flapping loudly as he tried to get away from it.

A few more seconds went by, and the helmet blew up.

* * *

Roy heard the explosion before he saw it. He and Kori had both left their warm beds at fuck o'clock in the morning to search for their wayward vigilante. Jason was supposed to return home two hours ago, but he hadn't. They had waited half an hour in case he was just late, but he never returned. In an instant, he dove towards the sky, the muscles in his wings flexing as he flew as fast as he could to the site of the explosion. Bombs were dangerous, and where there was danger, there was normally a Jason Todd to go along with it. He briefly wondered if any of the Bats had seen the explosion as well or if any of them would come over to help. He heard someone scoff in the back of his mind, and it sounded just like his partner.

"Hood, are you there?"

The alley was trashed. Pieces of the green metal from what used to be a dumpster were strewn about the place, and trash and fallen feathers littered the ground. There were blood spatters all over the place. Whatever confrontation happened here, neither party involved came out completely unscathed. He heard a low grown from a pile of rubble, a cough, and the sound of someone hyperventilating.

"Hood?" He scrambled to the pile, shoving trash and pieces of metal off of his partner.

Jason had been panicking. Roy could tell. He always had explosives in his helmet, but he used them as a last resort only. The loud _bang_ never failed to trigger flashbacks to the time when the Joker had murdered him, and the pain he no doubt was in probably didn't do much to help him either. His body was in tatters: cuts, scrapes, and stab wounds in all. One piece of the dumpster was sticking out of his abdomen, and Roy resisted the urge to shudder. That would definitely get infected.

"Hood? It's me. You're in Gotham." He slowly but surely raised his hand to gently caress his cheek. "I'm going to get you some help, yeah? Kori and I won't be able to fix this on our own."

His partner must really be out of it if he didn't raise any protests. There was only one place they ever really went if they couldn't fix their wounds themselves: the Batcave. Roy didn't mind it so much, but it was jam-packed full of bad memories for Jason. There was no other alternative however. Sure, he could take Jason to Gotham General Hospital, but that would raise questions that would be difficult to answer. They probably wouldn't even know how to deal with someone who had been affected by the Lazarus Pit anyway although the Bats didn't know much better.

He pinned his cell phone between his shoulder and his ear as he cautiously began to maneuver Jason into a better position. Dick picked up soon later, but Roy didn't waste any time with pleasantries. "Nightwing, Hood's in danger. I need to get him to the Batcave."

The oldest Robin's voice had no hint of its normal humor afterwards. _"What happened?"_

"Explosion."

_"Damn! I'll be right over. I'm guessing your talking about the explosion I just saw?"_

"Probably." Roy nodded to himself even if Dick wouldn't be able to see it. "See you soon." He hung up immediately, all of his attention back on his bleeding partner, but when he got him into a sitting position, he groaned and scowled.

"Shot m'.....ass." His voice was quiet as though he couldn't get enough air into his lungs to project. At least that meant that Jason was still semi-lucid

"Oh, fuck, really?" The archer glanced down at him and adjusted his position accordingly.

His partner rocked a little bit, not saying much for almost a whole minute. "Bruce?"

He sighed. "I'm not Bruce, Hood."

"He's never 'n time." Jason laughed a bit to himself. "'m I going to die again?"

Roy shook his head furiously. "No. No, you're going to live to fight another day, you hear me?"

"Feels the s'me as it did las' time." He paled a bit. "'m going to die."

"No, you're not." The archer said firmly, carefully putting pressure on some of the more violent looking wounds.

He kept the piece of shrapnel in there for now, not knowing exactly what it hit and not wanting to cause any further damage to Jason's body. Some of the other cuts were deep though, and Roy could barely keep enough pressure to slow the blood flow down enough to be optimistic.

"Where's Bruce?" 

Roy sighed. "He's in the Batcave probably."

"No.....wouldn' go back t' Gotham withou' me..." He shook his head, stopping after a few seconds to wince at the onslaught of pain that it caused.

"You are in Gotham. I am Roy, remember? I wasn't anywhere near Ethiopia."

"....Dead?"

He smiled down sympathetically, not that Jason noticed much of anything. "No, alive. Very much alive." He grabbed one of Jason's bloody fingers and pressed it against his pulse point, then Jason's. "See? Both alive."

"Where di' th' Joker go?"

"He's in Arkham right now." He said hesitantly, knowing how much it angered his boyfriend that the monster was still alive. "What you are seeing right now happened years ago."

Jason frowned, his brow furrowing in a desperate attempt to quell the raging pain that resided right behind his eyes. Roy wondered for a few seconds if he had a concussion, but he couldn't see his pupils well enough to tell. He'd wouldn't be surprised if he did, however, especially with how close he was to the bomb. He had ambivalent feelings on the whole bomb-in-the-helmet thing. On one hand, Jason only used it if it was his only chance at survival, so it probably saved his life. On the other, it was the reason he was in so much pain and having flashbacks to his death.

"No' real?" His eyes flicked from one side of the alley to the other widely as though he were an animal searching for their predator. "Joker no' real?" His voice was strained, both from his panic and from the lack of air getting to his lungs.

"He's not here." Roy promised.

There was the sound of someone landing in front of the alley, and Roy looked up in alarm. He only let go of the tension that had built in his shoulders once he saw the familiar figure of Dick Grayson as Nightwing. The rumble of an engine, only recognizable at the Batmobile, roared on the roads beyond, and Roy let go of a breath he hadn't been holding. Jason would be okay now.

"What's his status?" Dick narrowed his eyes as he quickly took note of every injury he could find on his brother's body.

"Bullet in the ass, shrapnel in the abdomen, numerous deep cuts across the body, possible broken bones, possible concussion or other head trauma." Roy bit his lip. "He's been having a pretty severe flashback, but I think he's coming down from that now."

Dick's concerned eyes flicked up to his brother's face, but Jason was looking elsewhere. He approached him slowly. "I'm going to help you up, okay? We need to get you to the Batcave."

Normally, Jason would have protested, but he said nothing. His eyes had a weird shine on it as though they had been glazed over. He only really responded when Dick touched him, but it was only by tensing and a sudden burst of movement that flung him back against the wall of the alley. The older brother immediately retreated, putting his hands up and lowering himself so that he wasn't towering over his wounded sibling.

Dick flicked his eyes over to Roy. "We need to get him out of here."

"No, shit." Roy held out his hand to his partner once more, watching but not moving as the antihero slowly reached out and accepted his grasp. "It's just Dick and I here now, okay? Neither of us are going to hurt you." He sent his old friend a glance, warning him not to speak yet.

"Bruce?"

"He's still not here, but we can go see him if you come with us." He said plainly.

"'s never here."

 _Well, let's not unpack that right now._ Roy winced, his other hand finding Jason's shoulder, and he braced, slowly and awkwardly getting his partner to his feet. Jason favored his left leg heavily since it was his right ass that got shot. Dick moved to help support Jason's other side, but he paused upon noticing the taller man shy away and shrink into Roy. Roy supposed that he had probably never seen Jason like this that much. He always put on a strong front for the Bats.

Finally, he heard Kori land at the front of the alley, and she rushed to meet them, only stopping a few feet away.

"Jason, look, it's Kori." He encouraged his partner to look up at their teammate. "Will you let her help you?"

Dick and Roy both stared as Jason's gaze darted up down Kori, seemingly trying to figure out if she was real or fake, if she was part of his flashback or not. It hurt to see Jason so unsure of himself, and Roy knew that the very feeling frightened his partner. After a few moments, Jason slowly nodded his head towards his teammate.

"We need to get out of here." Dick mumbled under his breath, holding the door open for the Tamaran.

She had taken the initiative of picking the antihero up. Naturally, she was very careful as to not exacerbate his wounds, but time was of the essence. Jason didn't make many protests, but the older two men could tell that he wasn't happy with the situation. He was the sort of man who liked both his two feet firmly planted on the ground, thank you very much, _even if it meant he never flew again._

"Batwoman is taking over patrol tonight." The older brother slipped into the driver's seat of the Batmobile. "B went back to the Batcave after I reported the explosion. He's preparing medbay with Agent A right now."

Roy nodded, barely paying attention to his friend. The three Outlaws had all managed to shove themselves into the back, neither Roy nor Kori willing to part with their wounded comrade. Jason to his credit didn't seem very aware of the situation around him, and Roy thought that it was due to the rapid amount of blood he was losing. Yes, all of them would be relieved once he got some medical attention regardless of who it came from.

His partner was loosing color rapidly, becoming as white as a freshly killed corpse. Now that he was closer, he could see that one of his eyes were constricted and the other was dilated. _Damn_. Concussion City was never fun, especially under the bright lights of medbay and around the constant chatter and arguments of the Batfamily. Some people, including him sometimes, just never knew when to shut the hell up. He hoped that Jason wasn't in too much pain at the moment, but Roy would be a fool if he thought that to be true. The adrenaline that had been coursing through his veins was no doubt wearing off, and his partner would finally be feeling the brunt of his wounds.

He was pretty impressed by Dick's driving though as they had made it back to the Batcave in record time. Roy hadn't been paying much attention, but he was sure that his friend had probably broken at least ten different driving laws. At least the GCPD officers never had the balls to pull over the Batmobile.

Kori grabbed hold of Jason once more, frowning when he didn't react at all to her touch. Normally, he would be more defensive and either flinch or fling himself away from the potential attacker, but now, his head just lolled over onto her shoulder. Roy swallowed roughly, gesturing frantically for her to pass his partner off to Alfred, Bruce, or Dr. Thompkins. As he too rushed to be by Jason's side, he noted that the other bat-children were all hovering around nearby. Briefly, he wondered who was assisting Kate with patrol, but he knew that she would have it covered regardless.

Dr. Thompkins looked down at the man she had not seen since he was small and frowned. "His wings?"

"He's taken up...hiding them." Roy admitted, knowing that such information would be crucial to the doctor. Jason would be mad that he gave him up so quickly, but _dude, it's kind of obvious._

"Binding them? Again?" Bruce hid his expression instantly. "With what?"

"He used duct tape this time." He didn't approve of his partner's habits, but it was nearly impossible to stop him once he made his mind up about something.

Damian spoke up from behind him, his green wings--nearly the same color as Jason's--flaring out behind him. "Why would he do something so foolish?"

"He's always been a bit shy with them." Bruce explained. "Hid them during his Robin days too."

"Mother instructed him not to do that. She told him to be proud of his wings." His voice was significantly quieter this time. "Why would he disobey her?"

His father paused, watching closely as Dr. Thompkins set to work on stripping him of his bloody clothing and as Alfred hooked him up for a blood transfusion. "He has rather unusually colored wings: white as the freshest snow. Jason thought that it would be too easy for people to connect his secret identity to his civilian one."

Roy winced, but before he could get a single word out, Damian interjected.

"His wings are not white." He frowned.

Alfred raised an eyebrow as he finished his task. "Master Jason's wings have always been that color."

"Yeah," Dick agreed, "I saw them once when he was younger. White as all hell. Kind of made me jealous." Absentmindedly, he picked a leaf that had gotten stuck out of his blue wings.

Damian shook his head furiously. "No, they look like mine." The entire al Ghul clan had wings colored similarly to the Lazarus Pit as the trait had been passed on from Ra's to Talia to Damian.

Automatically, they looked from Damian's wings to Jason's as Dr. Thompkins removed the his shirt. The youngest son was right; Jason's wings were no longer the purest white. Bound beneath layers of duct tape, they were bent at painful angles and were notably of the color that Damian had described. Even more, they were fucking _glowing._ Roy breathed a sigh of relief at that. Last time Jason had gotten injured and thrown in the harbor, his wings had shown him the way to him and hadn't stopped fluorescing until only scars remained (which was a lot sooner than it would be on a normal person).

"He did used to have white wings, but they changed once Mother put him in the Pit." Damian ignored the way the entire Batfamily flinched.

It had always irritated him, the way they seemed desperate to forget what had happened to his Ahki. It seemed that they thought that they had to banish the past in order to accept him back into the fold, but that just wasn't true. The more they ignored it, the less they truly understood Jason. His past had greatly molded the way he acts, and they wouldn't have any hope of getting close to him without remembering what had happened.

"Then, why would he be hiding them now?" Bruce wondered, mostly to himself. 

"He's very self-conscious, especially since people think white wings are a sign of a good person." Roy interjected. "He sees it as evidence that he is...not a good person, so he hides them. He hides them as though he's hiding a dark, evil, monstrous part of himself."

Tim tapped his fingers against his knee. "But he isn't. He isn't a bad person."

"Try telling him that." He laughed cynically. "Trust me, Kori and I have been trying for a long, long time."

"Well, he certainly needs to stop binding them so dangerously." Dr. Thompkins stated offhandedly as she stitched together some of the cuts on his arms. "They broke some of his ribs."

"Did they?" Roy wasn't that surprised. "He normally only bruises them."

Dick wanted to move closer to fret around his younger brother, but Duke hand on his shoulder held him back. "You knew he did this? Why did you let it continue?"

"He's a stubborn man." Kori responded in Roy's place. "We've been trying to get him to stop, but it's been going slowly. At least now he lets his wings out around us."

Roy nodded. "It took months for him to trust us enough to do so."

"He's not been taking very good care of them." Steph observed the tattered state of the wings.

The feathers were bent in odd places after being released from the duct tape, and the wings themselves haven't stopped bending awkwardly as though Jason was trying to bring them back into himself. There were cuts and scrapes on them from the explosion, and some of his feathers had fallen out too. It made Steph cringe as she brushed through he own wings, which were surprisingly _not purple_ but black. That didn't stop her from decorating them with purple though; she even had a few piercings she made use of in her civilian life.

"How often does he get groomed?" Bruce asked offhandedly. "He hasn't been coming over at all."

Kori and Roy looked at each other in surprise. Do they really not know? Jason had made his reasons so obvious to them.

"Errr," the archer coughed into his hand. "He thinks you don't want him there."

The older man looked stunned for a few moments before he schooled his expression. "What? Why would he think that?"

Roy found himself getting angry for his partner; how could the Bats all be so oblivious? They were detectives! He conceded that they weren't the best with emotions, but hell, he thought that this was a whole new level.

He found his voice quickly. "Because he isn't the precious, white-winged son you seem to so desperately want instead of him." His eyes flicked over to the Robin memorial pointedly.

"He's still my son. He's still Jason." Bruce said firmly.

"Well, you do seem to like little Jason a lot more than grown Jason." Roy found himself parroting Jason's own arguments. "Besides, even when he was such the good, angelic boy, all you thought of him in the end was...a good soldier."

"Roy!" Dick admonished, sending a nervous glare between his father and his friend. The other Bats seemed equally apprehensive.

Bruce's face turned angry instantly. "How dare you say that? He's my son! He mean so much more to me than what it says on that plaque."

"I'm not saying it as much as I am the messenger here." The archer glared coldly at the man while simultaneously inching closer to his Jaybird.

"Messenger?" Cass inquired, cocking her head to the side.

Kori nodded. "It might have been Roy's voice, but those words are all Jason's. We've both heard him say those things many times over."

The Bat himself just sat there for a while, his eyes drifting across his son's body as Dr. Thompkins worked. Thankfully, she seemed to be staying out of the family drama and just doing her job, and Bruce was grateful for that. But was that what Jason really thought? That Bruce didn't care for him as a son, but as a soldier? And that that little bit of affection died with him? Bruce loved his son so much that it physically hurt him day in and day out, but Jason was oblivious to it all. That was all Bruce's fault. He hadn't taken the initiative to welcome Jason back to the family, and he hadn't shown much emotion around him at all (because they normally encountered each other while he was Batman (but that wasn't an excuse)).

He had well and truly fucked up.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and suggestions are welcome and appreciated!


End file.
